Selfridges
Selfridges store in London celebrates its centenary this weekend (March 15th). The store, occupies a full block on London’s Oxford Street and offers 650,000 square feet of shopping space and 15 restaurants, bars and cafes.
The store was founded by H Gordon Selfridge who had previously worked for Marshall Field in Chicago and brought US style department store shopping to the UK. The large, open plan, shopping floors were unlike anything else in the UK and the subsequent rivalry with Harrods led to ‘the wager’ which Selfridge lost. Check my Harrods article to find out more about the wager. These days the rivalry is similar to that between Macy’s and Bloomingdales in New York.
Selfridge was passionate about retailing and transforming the customers’ shopping experience, the store had comfortable seats to allow shoppers to take a breather. He even attempted to build a tunnel directly into the store from the nearby underground station at Bond Street.
Selfridges now has stores in Manchester and Birmingham, and the Oxford Street store (which has its own hotel and petrol station) was extensively refurbished in recent years to include a large central escalator.
Gordon Selfridge was always a passionate believer in technology, in 1909 the plane in which Louis Bleriot first flew from Calais to Dover (the world’s first international flight) was displayed in the store and in 1925 the store hosted the world’s first public demonstration of Television, by John Logie Baird.
While the Selfridges store survived the depression of the 1930′s and flourished Gordon Selfridge did not, he was forced out by the store’s bankers who were unimpressed by his flamboyant lifestyle. He died in poverty in 1947 and it is said that his ghost is often seen on the south side of Oxford Street, gazing across at the store that still bears his name.